Opening for a few commission slots.
Everything is available, check my commission tab for details.
2 chibis or headshots can be ordered as a single slot.

Payment due upon order.

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I may open up a few more slots as I finish these.

Send me a note to claim a spot.

No set date when I will reopen.

I've been a bit stressed and frustrated lately. It's more people from offsite commissions that are breaking me. I try to keep things light and casual, but I guess that has lead some people to think they don't have to treat a commission like a business transaction. I've been waiting for one person to pay for 3 weeks for a tattoo design. This isn't the first time either, and it's aggravating to say the least. I spend that time working on their commission and then have to wait weeks for them to pay me, if I had known I would have just put off working on their stuff and done something else.

So changes
Considering making payments due upfront for everything.
I can't think of any other solutions. If I don't get paid for this piece, then I basically worked for free (he still hasn't received the final piece, and all WIP is watermarked).

I know folks here aren't guilty of this issue, and it's not like I'm in high demand anyways... I just need some time and to really sit down and think about how I'm going to deal with commissions moving forward.

General news- internet has been going out a lot. It will literally just drop off suddenly. I have a few possibilities pinned down for what's causing it, but I will probably be pretty absent until I can get it fixed. So if you are trying to get in contact with me please be patient until I can get this sorted.

New fosters!
Yes, my patchy rexes got adopted, and now we have taken on 3 new boys (  xizana named them Edgar, Allen, and Poe) . One of them, Poe, is severely ill, while the other two have a milder case of the same illness. We spent most of the day getting him to eat and giving him various treatments (nebulizing, steam, etc) to help him get over this... he appears to be regaining some fight in him, so I am cautiously optimistic.

Anyways, because of this, I am hoping to sell some adopts and take on a couple commissions to help the rescue pay for his medical care in case he needs more treatment than I can provide.

My current group of fosters has been far more challenging than what I've had in the past, but darn they are adorable.

Sage, Basil, and Parsley are all rex/double rex rats, meaning that they have super curly hair that falls out and regrows. Basil seems to shed the least, and he has such SOFT fur.

However, they are all incredibly hand shy. It seems that they were never picked up or played with before they wound up in the rescue. They freaked out the first time I picked them up to put them in their new cage. Currently I have gotten Sage and Basil to accept pets and cuddles. I think Sage took to it so readily because he was mostly bald at the time and it must have felt good to have the shedding areas rubbed. Basil is just very food motivated so I could probably get him to do just about anything for a treat. Parsley on the other hand... he doesn't like being held. He'll take food out of my hands, but he absolutely will not settle down when I'm holding him. I try not to push him too hard, but the better his handlability rating the easier it is to get him adopted.

That's not the challenging part though.
These guys know how to escape!
I had them in the play pen while I was cleaning their cage and came back in to find an empty playpen. I circle around it and find the clasp on one of the panels is off and the panel pushed out. I'm assuming the clasp was not secured when I put them in, but they must have been going around trying every panel to get out. Luckily I was able to catch them all pretty easily. Basil gave up for a cookie, Sage let me pick him up... but Parsley... this is his 3rd escape. I took a minimum of 10 minutes each time because he knows how to stay just out of reach. I hate having to grab him, I know it only makes the experience worse, but with a dog in the house I can't just let him roam free.

My condolences to their future forever home. Cute as they are, they are a handful!

Might as well open for trades.

Kinda want to get some art of Simia
https://toyhou.se/6497776.simia

or any of my babies
https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery.....Character-Refs


I'm willing to do:
Designs
Sketches
Busts (full color/shading)
Fully bodies (flat color or shaded coloring)
Minimal full illustrations if you are willing to wait a little longer

I want to work on my inking, but I don't feel like inking any of my own sketches.

No matter the level of detail, or skill. Send me a sketch of two and I will ink it for you.

This has been a terrible month.

Beowulf passed away. He had not been doing well for a while, so I was not caught off guard... Still... anyone who has followed me through the many updates on my rats knows how special Beowulf was. It took me 3 months to earn his trust, but after that he was my baby. He brought so much joy to my life and I will always carry him my heart.
I have my favorite picture of him, I'm laying on my back, he's laying on his back on my stomach, feet up and a cheerio shoved in his mouth. Livin' the dream.

Also

Turns out my grandfather died and I was never informed because the family didn't want me there. If I wasn't done with them already, this would have been the last straw with them.
I tried.
I tried to be the kind of shitty person they wanted, but it just made me miserable. So fuck it. Grandma can enjoy being completely alone because she pushed everyone away with her bigotry.

And I don't need anyone coming in with "but she's your grandma, you should forgive her and show her love". She flat out told me she doesn't want me in the family. She doesn't even want me to publicly use my last name. I'm not going to divulge my whole family history, but to cut a long story short, she earned this.

Positives....
Treatment on my skin is working, and the biopsy hole doesn't itch as much anymore. Also I have almost full use of my hands back. There is still a big red patch in the center of my palm, and the blisters broke and keep draining, but I can move my thumb!

My hands have not gotten any worse, and my right hand is looking a little better. However it's looking like it's probably ringworm. The big problem is I have eczema on my hands, so the irritation from the ringworm triggered a very dramatic reaction in my hands. Other problem is, the steroid creams I use to soothe the eczema can make ringworm worse.
So the heal of my left palm is thickened and frequently leaking. My right palm is also draining, but it hasn't spread anymore and I can kinda use my thumb now. Welts all over my torso and a few on my legs.
Upside, I got some antifungal cream and so far some of the spots seems to be going down. I will be hearing from the dermatologist on Monday about the biopsy and maybe getting an oral antifungal to help clear this out.

To add to things, Luna has developed kennel cough. The poor baby was up all night hacking. We've been giving her honey in warm water to soothe her throat, and she's going to the vet tomorrow.

Hey lovely people!

I was really looking forward to doing something for this month buuuuuuuut fate decided otherwise. Because of the rain, humidity, and high temps my eczema went wild, and I currently have a big patch of blisters in the center of my right palm, and scattered about my left hand... to top it off, my rats also managed to get some kind of mite or flea that I am apparently allergic to judging by the big round oozy splotches I have. Either one is bad enough, and I'm being a big baby about it.

I actually went to the clinic and basically got a "hmm, that sucks, well here's another cream to put on it." At this point I don't even feel like contacting the dermatologist, and I'm honestly not sure there is much else to be done right now other than to let it heal on it's own.

The boys will be going to the vet to get treated. I feel awful that I haven't been able to cuddle them because of this.

Fingers crossed!
I should be back to what we consider normal around here in a week or two.

Take care of yourselves, keep hydrated


EDIT: HA, it's worse, its scabies.... I have babies inside me, little blood sucking babies

EDIT 2: dermatologist does not think its scabies on me, she took a punch biopsy. I'll know more by Monday

If you want more of Kay and Hara (or some Garashir content) I have a tumblr just for that now

https://starshiplamaupin.tumblr.com/

I am feeling a little stagnant in my work, so why not take on a little challenge?
((I'm a little medicated right now, so hopefully I make sense))


Send me an aesthetic board (edit: either one you made or one you found), you can include a species but do not have to.
I will pick boards that inspire me and design a character for you.

One entry per person please.
There is no guarantee I will pick your board, but I will try to pick at least 3. This is strictly based on whether I can come up with an idea to match the board.
These are artistic liberty.
You will have full rights to do whatever you want with the design.

Comment below.
If you have any questions feel free to ask!


*********Wow! I did not expect to get so many awesome submissions.... y'all are gonna make this difficult***********

If the internet gods should choose to favor me, I will be streaming with  xizana tomorrow at around 9 EST

I even have a mic, so you can hear my horrible voice and be plagued with nightmares from here on out.

I will be offering sketch commissions- $10 for a bust or $20 for a full body with loose shading. This is to raise more cash for DFW Rat Rescue- additionally you can donate directly to them and show me proof of donation for your sketch
https://www.dfwratrescue.org/

I will post a link when streaming begins
Hope to see you there!

Power came back at the end of last week, and as soon as the ice melted away they returned to the planned road work.... and promptly ripped up the cable line for my neighborhood... so no one on my street has phone, TV, or internet service...
Good thing smart phones exist!

I am still open for commissions, I will just have to work around the whole internet situation.

Also open for trades.

In rat news
Already got an offer on the fosters just days after them being posted to the website. It's a bittersweet happiness, as much as i love having them around i know i am just a stop on their journey to a forever home.


I hope everyone is doing well, and that you have a great day. Cheers!

Hey guys,
Power has been off since 2 am yesterday (15th). It's been on for a short while in between, long enough to warm up the house.
We are doing our best and trying to keep warm. I gave the rats plenty of nesting materials.
Not sure when I will have power again.
Until then I will be pretty much unable to answer any notes. I will get right back to work as soon as possible!

Take care everyone.

Shortly after I made the last post, another person submitted an adoption application for the three boys. This time it stuck! Rowan melted into her arms when she held him.

On Saturday I drove out to pick up the next set of boys.
Oh man guys.... they are stinkin' adorable.

Onyx: black dumbo. Smallest of the group, but also the most affectionate. He will not stop giving kisses and demanding cuddles.
Flint: agouti rex. I have never had a rex before, I knew they were soft but OH MAN HE IS SOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFT! Think about the softest thing you've ever touched, now multiply that by 10.
Jasper: Himalayan dumbo. Standoffish. He knows he's gorgeous. He also has some nasty bumblefoot and tore up my hand while I tried to put antibiotic cream on it.

I bought a crate pad to line the bottom of the cage so that Jasper and Flint can walk comfortably without hurting their sores. It's probably gonna take some time to get them to 100%, but I don't think they'll be staying with me for long once they are ready for adoption.

Opening for some quick commissions.

Long story short, Beowulf had a medical emergency which wiped out most of my vet funds. My foster rats were adopted and returned again... so I might need to get one seen by a vet and I'm planning to just pay the adoption fee since this is the second time they have been returned.
It's sad that my first fosters will be foster fails, but I am happy to give them a home.



UPDATE: Another adopter has reached out to adopt the three fosters and is willing to pay medical bills if needed. I feel extremely conflicted because I don't want to go through the heartache of them getting returned again... I knew this was going to be tough, but not THIS tough.
The vet fund is still super low, so I will keep commissions open for that.

Have you ever had an art block where your hand is just being an obstinate little shit and won't move the way you tell it to? It feels like I'm operating my hand remotely.

I have stuff I'd love to work on, but my hand is just not cooperating.

Opening up some commission slots


Check prices here

1.  xizana chibi
2.  whitemantis fullbody sketch
3.  veekahr chibi
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Sometimes, all I know how to do is carry on like normal...

I am sure we are all feeling it. The stress of the pandemic, the election, the general state of the world.

I just wanted to be honest that I'm not alright. I'm holding it together, and I will likely pull through this, but I am so damned exhausted. I buried one of my friends recently, he was someone I really looked up to as a mentor.

I'm going to get my will in order, just in case. I already have a life insurance policy through my work, but I want to prepared. I don't know how many more funerals I'm going to be attending before I finally get to my own.
I know this sounds grim and very depressing, but this is the reality we have to face.

So... yeah. I might not be the most chipper version of myself for a while.
Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you, we are not guaranteed any amount of time this Earth.

Well, it finally happened...

I broke down and started fostering rats. Currently just have three foster boys that need to put on weight- two of them are huge but I don't think they could weigh more than 300g (consider Beowulf is smaller and weighs around 550gm). I've had them for a few days now and they already look better after getting consistent meals and plenty of water.

The hard part is going to be giving them up.

Hello my lovelies!

I know I haven't posted much non-Spireus related content, and I am sure some people are tired of it. If you are bored of it, well I guess you are in luck since I am considering taking a little break from it after October.

Speaking of October!
In case you are not watching us both,  xizana and I hooked up to work on a comic together!
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/38047697/
So keep an eye out for that!

I am trying to get other things finished, and will hopefully be able to carve out some time for trades and commissions.


Hoping you all are well!

Just thought I would offer.

If you have a piece that you could use some help on feel free to link it in the comments or send it in a note if you prefer.
I can offer some help with anatomy, composition, a little bit with color (I don't consider myself really strong in that area, but I can help with balancing saturation and such).
Or you can bounce ideas off me!

Share with me one of your least favorite pieces in your gallery and I will tell you something nice about it.

Or even, a piece you didn't feel confident about posting; maybe you tried something new and you're not sure about it. Maybe a piece that you like but no one seems to notice?

Overall, share something from your gallery (or a friend's gallery) and I will leave a positive comment.

I encourage everyone who reads this to try it too. Comment on your friends' stuff and tell them they are doing great.


((You can also ask for advice if you want it))

Hello darlings,

I hope everyone is doing well with all that has been going on this year.

In the midst of a lot of things happening I sort of accidentally started a project.
Back in the way back days of middle school my friends and I made our own card decks since most of us did not have Yugioh cards. Well, I recently found my old deck! Every time this thing surfaces in my life I like to flip through some of the cards and just have a little giggle at some of my amateur design choices (one of the characters is literally just a pink Ryo Ohki with a ribbon, and there is a ton of silver haired characters). However, this time I sat down and hastily doodled a redesign of one of the cards and... well I was hooked.
It was very satisfying, even if it was a bit haphazard and messy. I ended moving on to redraw another card and it's taken off from there. I have several sketches laid out for various cards- most of the drawings will be about 2"x3". I don't know if I really want to redesign the WHOLE deck, but I will probably keep this up for a while. There are some that were just copied from other media that I will probably completely redesign or just leave out, idk at the moment. Some of these are so "generic middle school weeb" characters that I will probably change them up a lot- especially since at least five of these characters look like they could just be swapped with each other XD.... I'm gonna rag of baby me, it's all in good fun though.
Currently drawing these in a small sketchbook that I can carry with me to work, but I've been considering drawing some of these on the art cards I have prepped. I still don't have much daylight to devote to coloring, so they will likely be just inks.

It never had a name before (at least I don't remember one) so I am simply calling it Spireus.

I'm currently posting what I finish on my instagram (@thesixrabbits) but will probably scan in better quality images to post here in clumps.

I am still working through my current commission queue (keep an eye out for a TON of stuff coming in October!) and those will take priority of Spireus

Thoughts? Comments?

After Renfield passed away, Mordred stopped eating. He had already been having some mysterious health issues that the vet could not pin down. I was feeding him baby food morning and night, but he would only take so much.

I remember bringing him home- this teeny tiny little black rat that was 50% testicles and 100% anxiety. It took him a long time to warm up to people, and he never really developed a taste for cuddling.

As many know, Mordred was a smart cookie. Last year I made them a treat wreath for the holidays by stringing cupcake papers, woodblocks, and treats on some twine then tying it in a loop. My plan was that they would have to work at chewing the treats off the twine... well along comes Mordred who climbs up to the top and snips the end of the twine with his little teeth and just dumps everything on the ground.

He loved being out in the flowers and among the plants. He was the most relaxed when he could stretch out among the pansies.

He will be missed.
My crew is now down to Lancelot, Urien, and Beowulf (who is healing up more, and able somewhat straighten his tail now).

I've honestly been a bit numb for the last few days. I feel like I'm just too tired to cry.
Anyways,
Take care of yourself. Be kind. And like Mordred, stare in disdain at anyone that has the audacity to touch you.